The anticipated costs of inaction are significant, and justify long-term investments
The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), based in Winnipeg, recently released a study entitled A Business Case for Investment in Canadian Community-Based Water Monitoring.
As the name implies, this study details the environmental and economical benefits of community-based water monitoring (CBWM). CBWM is defined in the document as monitoring by local community stakeholders, as opposed to more conventional monitoring by, for example, the state.
The paper uses three Canadian examples of CBWM programs around the Lake Winnipeg Watershed (Manitoba), Liard River (British Columbia, Yukon) and Annapolis River (Nova Scotia).
In summary, the IISD encourages funders to fund these types of programs. The return on investment seems to be there. For example, the data generated for the 2016-2019 period by the Lake Winnipeg Foundation cost $329,000, whereas the costs would have been over $1.1 million if the data had been generated by a public entity.
